Method and system for an online patient community based on &#34;structured dialog&#34;

ABSTRACT

A system for an online community based on Structured Dialogs offering organizations the opportunity to create online communities and have a dialog with users on their status, condition, and progress without the risk of adverse event reports by users. The system may include an interface that limits user communication to Structured Dialogs comprising controlled vocabulary elements of specific choices, including pop-ups, drop downs, and sliders. The system includes a personal health and wellness management tool coupled with the community to enable the user to manage his or her medication and condition using Structured Dialogs and thus making the interaction more interesting and effective for users. The system may also include an information repository “Info” Layer that can offer articles that are relevant to users. The “We”, “Me” and “Info” Layers can share statistics and Structured Dialogs data.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/981,621, filed Dec. 30, 2010, the contents of which are all incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to health support services and more particularly, to a method and a system for an online health community based on “Structured Dialogs.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Engaging consumers in sharing information from personally controlled health records (PCHR's) and patient communities for health research and patient support may promote goals of improving care and advancing public health. Understanding consumer willingness to share data is critical to advancing this model. Many entrepreneurs have originated PCHR's and patient communities for health research and patient support communities (e.g., patientslikeme.com) because of difficulties friends and/or relatives have had getting emotional and social support related to prolonged illness.

In the past there have been problems with patient community Web sites. Regulatory agencies require Adverse Event Reports whenever a patient contributes text that may be interpreted as an adverse event, and the pharmaceutical company, for example, is required to file required paperwork and conduct an investigation. MSWatch.com, a community for Multiple Sclerosis patients, was such a site. At MSWatch.com, patients could create their own multiple sclerosis treatment diary coupled with a support community of multiple sclerosis patients and experts. Despite the significant success for engaging and supporting Multiple Sclerosis patients, it appears that the host pharmaceutical company has decided to close this site due to the challenge of the mandatory monitoring of patient contributed content, although specific knowledge of the situation is not certain. Prior art FIG. 1 shows a typical Web page 100 from Web site MSWatch.com. Problematic patient input 110 is shown. Likewise, other regulatory issues like privacy and HIPAA have also hindered the use of patient communities.

Thus, such Web sites have been shut down because free discussions with patients are unworkable, and it would be advantageous to provide an improved method and system for sharing and recording patient experiences.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a patient engagement solution that adheres to strict regulatory healthcare and pharmaceutical guidelines, yet offers the full scope and strength of a patient community. Such community may also be safely coupled with a personal health management solution and personalized health content.

It is another principal object of the present invention to provide a solution with INHERENT ADHERENCE TO REGULATORY GUIDELINES using Structured Dialogs of specific choices, with no need for moderation.

-   -   1. an online health community based on Structured Dialogs that         can offer pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare organizations         in general, the opportunity to create online patient communities         and have a dialog with their patients on their websites, without         the risk of unnoticed adverse event reports by users or other         privacy and regulatory issues (which is why many otherwise         valuable websites had to be abandoned).     -   2. an interface in which users can only communicate via         controlled, limited vocabulary elements such as pop-ups, drop         downs, sliders, buttons, selection within fixed lists, etc. The         site does not have any place to enable users to write free text         and by that limits the dialogs that can be presented within the         site.     -   3. To make the interaction more interesting and effective for         patients, the community can also be coupled with a personal         health and wellness management planner tool (the “Me” Layer) to         enable patients to track and achieve their health activities and         goals. Such a tool usually offers a personal online planner for         medication, lifestyle, condition related activities and personal         tasks that are usually related to the health product, drug or         condition. The personal online planner would also make use of         the controlled vocabulary of the Structured Dialogs to ensure         the same inherent adherence to regulatory guidelines as the         community. The “Me” Layer is connected via an information feed         to the community enabling the patient to share personal progress         updates with the community (the “We” Layer).     -   4. By connecting the Me and We Layers, the patients are provided         with (a) a strong companion management tool for the health         product or service and (b) relevant support, statistics, and         information from the community.     -   5. The structured information within Structured Dialogs, enables         further use of game dynamics, rewards, challenges, statistics         (e.g., “how do I compare with the community”), etc. to support         patients.     -   6. The We Layer and the Me Layer can also be connected to a         content (e.g., health articles) selection process that based on         the patient activities recorded within the “Me” Layer and the         community activities within the “We” Layer offers highly         personalized content selection (“Info” Layer). For example, a         patient may report that he or she has started jogging via the         “Me” Layer, and be provided with an article about the benefits         of running for his or her condition. The “Info” Layer may be         further connected to the “Me” and “We” Layers to provide         personal and community references within the content (e.g.,         reading an article about the benefits of yoga for a condition         may offer personal statistics about the patient from his or her         “Me” Layer about personal yoga activities, e.g., “on average you         have attended 2.5 yoga classes every week for the last 2 months”         as well as community statistics, e.g., “15% of the community         found yoga beneficial to reduce pain”) and by thus make articles         much more relevant and interesting to users.     -   7. Such a solution is also advantageous for mobile devices, and         especially mobile touch devices, because the Structured Dialogs         does not need to require typing, but just quick, limited         selections, thereby enabling simplified use of such devices via         touch selections.     -   8. The Structured Dialogs coupled with the fact that the website         does not need to contain any identifying information (beyond a         username and password) also protects the subscribing         pharmaceutical or healthcare companies from any privacy issues         and offers inherit privacy protection under regulations and         guidelines such as those from HIPAA. The username can also be         selected from a controlled list to fully separate the user         identity from the website.     -   9. Beyond the marketing and support benefit to pharmaceutical         and other healthcare companies, as far as establishing a         community and engaging directly with patients, the website         provides a source for anonymous aggregate statistics based on         the Structured Dialogs from the patient community and the         patient personal planner (e.g., statistics about patient         acquisition, conversion, retention, adherence, health outcomes,         sentiment, etc.) as well as enabling such an environment to         directly recruit patients for clinical trials and other research         and marketing projects via opt-in mechanisms.

A system is disclosed for an online community based on Structured Dialogs that provides a plurality of subscribing organizations the opportunity to create online communities and have a dialog with a plurality of users/patients on at least one website and/or mobile Web/app of one of said plurality of organizations, without the risk of unnoticed adverse event reports by users/patients. The system includes an interface wherein the users/patients can only communicate with Structured Dialogs elements comprising at least one of pop-ups, drop downs, buttons, sliders and other preset screen controls. The interface provides for user displays of personal health and wellness management tools. The tools include a personal component, a community component and a content component.

The personal component administers the inputs of users/patients enabling the users/patients to track and achieve their health activities and goals. The community component enables support and comparisons of the users/patients inputs with the inputs of other users/patients suffering from the same or similar infirmities and the content component can offer articles relevant to the users/patients.

The personal component may be embodied as a personal health and wellness management “Me” Layer coupled to the community. The community component is embodied as a “We” Layer displaying the output of an information feed to the “Me” Layer and the We Layer enables a user/patient to share personal experiences with the community. The content component may be embodied as an “Info” Layer providing personalized content and reference content automatically found by the system from the “Me” and “We” Layers and from internal and outside content sources. The “Info” Layer provides personalized content that may include reference information from the “Me” and the “We” Layers, e.g., and statistics that are relevant to a specific health article from the “Me” and “We” layers.

The Structured Dialogs enable use of game dynamics (“Your team lost the most amount of weight”), rewards (“You gain a badge for adherence to your medication program”) and statistics based on controlled vocabulary (“How do I compare with the community”) to support patients.

There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof that follows hereinafter may be better understood. Additional details and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the detailed description, and in part will be appreciated from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the invention with regard to the embodiments thereof, reference is now made to the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals designate corresponding elements or sections throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a screenshot illustrating the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of the Wellness Layers engagement formula, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of the overall invention, constructed according to the principles of the present invention

FIG. 4 is a tabular representation of application layers, community social interactions, information and back office sources of analytics and support, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an article page illustrating the addition of personal and community statistics and information, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of an initial online interview of the patient in order to build a personal plan as well as a community personal page, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 7a is a schematic representation of logging a patient's progress within the Me Layer, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 7b is a schematic representation of examples of tracking a patient's pain level, with different controlled trackers for different conditions constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 8a is a schematic representation of a top portion of a patient's personal page, within the community constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 8b is a schematic representation of a bottom portion of a patient's personal page, constructed according to the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 9a is a schematic representation of a top portion of a Community Homepage, Member page view, constructed according to the principles of the present invention; and

FIG. 9b is a schematic representation of a bottom portion of a Community Homepage, Member page view, constructed according to the principles of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

The principles and operation of a method and an apparatus according to the present invention may be better understood with reference to the drawings and the accompanying description, it being understood that these drawings are given for illustrative purposes only and are not meant to be limiting.

FIG. 1 is a screenshot illustrating the prior art where consumers ask questions 100 and other consumers provide answers 110.

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of Wellness “Layers” engagement, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The present invention provides a patient's personal health management solution (“Me” Layer), as well as receives support from other patients via a patient community (“We” Layer) and personalized content (“Info” Layer). By connecting the Me and We Layers, the patients are provided with (a) a strong companion management tool for the health product or service and (b) relevant support, statistics, and information from the community.

The “Info” Layer may be further connected to the “Me” and “We” Layers to provide personal and community references within the content (e.g., reading an article about the benefits of yoga for a condition may offer personal statistics about the patient from his or her “Me” Layer about personal yoga activities.

The layers can be thought in the manner of physical transparency overlays, such that each contributes to an overall image when overlaid together. The “Me” Layer 210 provides assessment, a personal plan, plan trackers and reports. The “We” Layer 220 enables a controlled Structured Dialogs community for a healthcare product, for example and the “Info” Layer 230 provides personalized content with “Me” and “We” Just-In-Time reference content. “Just-In-Time” can be illustrated by an example. E.g., a patient may enter in the “Me” Layer that he or she does yoga twice a week. The system is able to automatically find and present cross-referenced relevant statistics from the We Layer, such as “Other community members who also report having Alzheimer's do yoga 1.5 times a week on average. Congratulations, you are above average in this category.” The arrows provide reference to the cross feeds that occur between the Me/We/Info Layers.

FIG. 3 is a schematic flow chart of the overall invention, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The “Me” Layer Personal Health Manager 310 exchanges structured data with the Personal Health Record Database 320 and is interactive with the “We” Layer Controlled Community 385, which in turn exchanges data with the Community Structured Dialogs Database 390 and is interactive with “Me” Layer 310. Both Personal Health Record Database 320 and Community Structured Dialogs Database 390 pass on data for Aggregate Analysis 365, with analyzed results passed onto the Marketing and Business console 370. “We” Layer Controlled Community 385 also provides opt-in Recruitment Options to Marketing and Business console 370. Opt-in Recruitment is basically leveraging the direct community connection to solicit volunteers for clinical trials and other patient recruitments. Such volunteers will need to opt-in and either approach the company or provide their contact information so they can be approached by the company.

“Me” Layer Personal Health Manager 310 provides Shared Personal Health Data for Personal Statistics and Newsfeed 330 to the “Info” Layer Personalized information 340. “We” Layer Controlled Community 385 provides Structured Dialogs data to the Community Statistics and Newsfeed process 350 to be shared with the “Info” Layer personalized information 340. “Info” Layer personalized information 340 receives Tagged Articles 380 and provides relevant Article Feeds 335 to both the “Me” Layer Personal Health Manager 310 and “We” Layer Controlled Community 385.

Such schematic flow shows the cross feeds between each one of the “Me”, “We”, and “Info” Layers as well as the aggregate statistics and recruitment option for the business console.

FIG. 4 is a tabular representation of personal health management application layer (“Me layer”) 410, Structured Dialogs community (“We layer”) 420 and information 430 and back office sources of analytics and support 440, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The examples in each group illustrate the content of the group.

FIG. 5 is an article page illustrating the addition of Just-In-Time reference information from the “Me” and “We” Layers into the article (“Info” Layer), constructed according to the principles of the present invention. Just-In-Time community information and a personal statistics feed 510 is presented. The entire page is a single article related to the Me and We inputs about personal and community inputs relative to therapeutic yoga practice.

FIG. 6 is a schematic representation of building a personal plan and community personal page via a personal interview, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The structured dialog illustrates the patients inputs for the Me layer. Questions such as “Have you been diagnosed by a doctor?” 610, “How long ago were you diagnosed?” 620 and “What medications are you taking?” 630. Medication type choices are presented in an exemplary scrollable window, with a selected medication highlighted 631. Additional medications are listed 632, to be clicked, and thereby highlighted, if they are taken. The dialog asks whether the patient has made any changes to these categories to help improve your condition 633. This illustrates one example of the Structured Dialogs method for acquiring information rather than free text.

FIG. 7a is a schematic representation of logging an exemplary patient's progress, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. FIG. 7a shows hypothetical patient “Gemini2's” Arthritis Wellness Plan 710, including: “Progress Log”, “Today's Activities” and “History”. Also shown are Gemini2's “To Do List” 720 and Gemini2's “Daily Progress Status” 730. The logs and graphs of FIG. 7a are built from the Me layer input structured dialogs, such as those of FIG. 6.

FIG. 7b is a schematic representation of tracking a patient's pain level, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. An exemplary patient Gemini2 shows his arthritis wellness plan, where he specifically inputs his general pain level using a controlled slider 731 on a scale of 0 to 10. An example of a patient's list of tasks that need to be done 733 and periodic (e.g., daily, weekly, etc.) bar charts for “My Status” 740 are shown. The bar charts are automatically derived from the patient's inputs to the structured dialogs, as described above. Gemini2 is instructed to mark pain points 725 on the left wrist 721 and the left ankle 722, with a grayscale 723 to be marked for the wrist pain. Structured Dialogs input refers to the fact that the user can log his or her pain for that day based on controlled vocabulary and without free text. Again, the bar graphs of FIG. 7b are built from the Me layer input structured dialogs, such as those of FIG. 6,

FIG. 8a is a schematic representation of a top portion of a patient's personal page as presented in the community, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. For the exemplary patient “Gemini2” a selected avatar and demographics are shown 810. Page stats 820 and typical questions and answers introducing the patient to the community 830 are provided. Information is given about “My Medical Condition” 840, summarizing the patient's personal data, medication and specific pain points. “My Medical Goals” 850 puts the patients goals for nutrition and exercise, for example, into simple sentence format. Finally, information is presented about: “Friends I have made on the website” 860, generally those with similar conditions, as well as “Community Wisdom” which provides relevant information from the community dialogs 870.

FIG. 8b is a schematic representation of a bottom portion of a patient's personal page, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. Graphical data about the patient's progress is presented 875 and a scrollable display of “My Friends” with their names/nicknames and avatars 880, combining “Me layer” inputs and pictorial representations for illustrative purposes. Using Structured Dialogs, friends can post comments 885 and various controlled items such as “I like” 890 that can be clicked for more quick exposition of thoughts, feelings, and community encouragement.

FIG. 9a is a schematic representation of a top portion of a Community Homepage, Member view page, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. The following are presented: badges the patient won 910, for example: “You gain a badge for adherence to your medication program;” an inspirational quote for the day 920, for example: “Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional;” and new relevant community information newsfeed, such as tips from friends 930 are shown. “Helpful Answers” 940, for example a helpful web site; a comparative report 950, for example comparisons to the “We layer” community; tips recommended by friends 960, for example, additional friendly advice; and a community rating facility 970, for example rating solicitations for articles, products and tips are provided.

FIG. 9b is a schematic representation of a bottom portion of a Community Homepage, Member view page, constructed according to the principles of the present invention. FIG. 9b presents more community newsfeeds: general posts and responses 980, Community News 990 and Community wisdom, which shows relevant community statistics 995.

Having described the present invention with regard to certain specific embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the description is not meant as a limitation, since further modifications will now suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, and it is intended to cover such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims. The above description is an example for a specific condition, but the approach needs to change with regards to what is the “Me”, “We” and “Info” for every product. 

1. A system for an online community based on Structured Dialogs that allows a plurality of subscribing organizations creating online communities and have a dialog with a plurality of users/patients on at least one website and/or mobile Web/app of one of said plurality of organizations, without the risk of unnoticed adverse event reports by users/patients, said system comprising: an interface, wherein said plurality of users/patients can communicate with Structured Dialogs elements comprising at least one of pop-ups, drop downs, sliders and other preset screen controls, said interface allows user displays of personal health and wellness management tools, the management tools comprising a personal component, a community component, and a system component, wherein said personal component administers the inputs of users/patients enabling the users/patients to track and achieve their health activities and goals; said community component enables comparisons of the users/patients inputs with the inputs of other users/patients suffering from the same or similar infirmities; and said system component is configured to offer articles relevant to the users/patients.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein: said personal component is embodied as a personal health and wellness management “Me” Layer coupled to said community; said community component is embodied as a “We” Layer displaying the output of an information feed to said “Me” Layer and said We Layer enabling a patient to share personal experiences with said community; and said system component is embodied as an “Info” Layer providing personalized content and reference content automatically found by the system from the “Me” and “We” Layers.
 3. The system of claim 1, wherein one of said plurality of organizations is a healthcare organization.
 4. The system of claim 3, wherein said healthcare organization is a pharmaceutical company.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein said at least one website does not accept free text users.
 6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a personal online planner for medication, lifestyle changes, condition-related activities and personal tasks that are related to drugs or conditions.
 7. The system of claim 1, wherein said Structured Dialogs enable aggregation of statistics and market analysis for said plurality of organizations
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein said Structured Dialogs enable use of game dynamics, rewards and statistics based on Structured Dialogs to support patients.
 9. The system of claim 1, wherein said system is implemented for touch screen mobile devices of said users, and wherein a controlled vocabulary within the Structured Dialogs responds to specific choices.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein said statistics enable opt-in recruitment. 